The open purchase of votes by both All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the just concluded Governorship election in Ekiti State, once again vindicates the oft-repeated position of the leading aspirant in Ogun Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Sina Kawonise, that the two political parties are one and the same.
In a statement released to the media on Sunday by Acting Director of SK Media Office, Mr Doyin Owobamirin, Kawonise, former Commissioner for Information in Ogun State and Publisher of NewsScroll newspaper, was quoted as saying that “both PDP and APC are like Siamese twins, joined together by corruption and perversion of Nigeria’s electoral process by exploiting the poverty they threw our people into through vote buying”.
According to him “It really does not matter which of the two corrupt parties won; for irrefutable video evidence proved that both APC and PDP induced poor Ekiti voters with money. The conclusion from this latest subversion of Nigeria’s democracy is that making our people poor and keeping them so is a deliberate policy of Nigeria’s ruling class in order to make our people vulnerable in the patently faulty electoral processes of the country.
“As it has been established, the continuous underdevelopment of our country is closely linked to the faulty and corrupt electoral system that produces only shady and incompetent characters who perpetuate poverty and violence in our land.”
Kawonise, therefore, urged Nigerians, particularly Ekiti people, to ignore the hypocritical cry of rigging by PDP outspent by APC, and the immoral rejoicing of APC whose candidate is claiming an illegitimate mandate.
Kawonise, who believes that all hope is not lost, calls on all people of goodwill in Ogun State not to allow the Ekiti scenario play out in the coming 2019 general elections in Ogun State.
His words: “With determination to enthrone good governance in our dear state, conscientious people should come together to support me in SDP in this lone cry for electoral integrity and eventual good governance by educating our people to shun those inducing them with material things than can’t sustain them beyond a few days. I believe we can make all the difference in Ogun State that produced national icons and heroes as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief MKO Abiola, Professor Wole Soyinka, among many other Ogun indigenes celebrated nationally and internationally.”
Kawonise says further: “We should not leave the political process to them again, we should all go out to join SDP and participate fully in ensuring genuine democracy. The internal processes of the new SDP forecloses the corrupting influence of big money. The party is about the people, and it is the platform to free us from the shackles of oppression, poverty and godfatherism”.
